Trust me this is not a whining topic. Any one who has ever played Sim know his strengths have always been being able to keep the opponent out. However once they got in, all hell broke loose and unless you were able to handle the pressure from your opponent you could easily get defeated in seconds. SFIV and SSFIV are no different.
Well besides learning the movesets for my opponents (I just found out how cool training mode is) I can do okay keeping my opponents out but lo and behold once they get in I fold like a chair from Wal-Mart. I get killed by the repetitive use of jab and short kick. If I block I get grabbed eventually and if I try to grab back I end up getting destroyed from the jabs and short kicks which lead to specials, ex moves, supers, ultras etc.
Is there a way or technique to work on blocking these attacks and know when to tech throw or counter with my repetitive short kicks and jabs? It is very frustrating to say the least.
First of all, this is one of Dhalsim players burden yes, but a good Dhalsim player has solid defence, even when the opponent is close. Just look at Arturo (Youtube him). He blocks “everything” and almost never gets thrown. How? There are two answers (IMO): 1: Reading your opponent. 2: Crouch teching
1: The amount of speed a person uses on “downloading” their opponent is different, and is perhaps what really separates the good players from the best. When you do “download” you’r opponent, you will catch on to his patterns (example: c.jab c. jab throw). By figuring out your opponents patterns, you can tech throws where you predict they will go for a throw.
2: To hold down back, and press throw slightly after every hit in a blockstring by the opponent, makes you teck tick throws and block everything else. By crouching, your throw animation won’t come out and make you vurnerable, you can, on the other hand, wiff a crouching short, but the recovery is less. Crouch teching can be beaten by delayed attacks, so be carefull, but it is a great tool everyone should learn.
3?: Some people have amazing reactions, but I refuse to believe all throws can be teched on reaction, but I am only speaking from my own experience, so I might be wrong:P
Good players will know what attacks put them at a frame advantage. For example… Bison’s LK scissors. Blocking the scissors technically doesn’t put bison at a frame advantage, however it does guarantee that they will be at 0 frame advantage (meaning that they know for a fact that you had no chance to already start an attack.). They KNOW that you’re at equal frame advantage. Bison’s crouching short comes out in 3 frames. Bison’s crouching short will win that exchange. If you try to throw or crouch tech you will get hit for free. Not only will you get hit, but you’ll be COUNTER hit. A counter hit is when the opponent hits you while in the process of trying to attack. If you try to throw you’ll be in throw animation when the opponent hits you. If you try to crouch tech you’ll be in the crouching short animation when the opponent hits you. A counter hit not only grants the opponent more hit stun than they’d usually get for that hit. It also grants more damage.
So, what do you have that beats bison’s crouching short? Nothing. You could gamble a super or an ultra if you want to (probably) get hit for free. You could try to teleport, but again that’s an insane risk as you’ll either be caught out of it, hit with a standing roundhouse, or scissors.
So, what do you do? Block. That’s all. If you do anything else you will lose on the exchange and the opponent will STILL be in your face. A big part of Dhalsim’s game is staying patient, blocking. The opponent will get impatient and try to tick throw you, or just throw you. You have to get good at teching throws, this is something that will come with experience. But, if you try to crouch tech at the wrong time, or too much… You’re simply going to lose 1/5th - 1/2 your life. You have to block and wait for an opportunity. Either the opponent will jump allowing you to short slide -> teleport away, they’ll throw allowing you to tech it and create distance and remove frame advantage, or they’ll get pushed back by their own attacks far enough for you to b.lk, b.MK and have the option to cancel b.MK into into either teleport or fp yoga fire.
Crouch teching as SimSim mentioned is important to be able to do. You hold down+back and hit LP+LK a split second AFTER the opponent hits you. You do this for every hit in the opponent’s blockstring as long as they’re close enough to throw you. Once you’re pushed out of throw range STOP DOING IT. If an opponent hits you, then goes to throw you right away you’ll tech their throw. If the opponent hits you and tries to delay a moment then throw you, you’ll hit them with a crouching short. If the opponent delays for a moment and then does scissors kicks… well… you’re going to get hit and knocked down. This is the danger of this method of crouch teching.
Yeah in the corner against those characters, particulary Bison, I just block while they are close until they are pushed far enough away to risk a b.lk. Crouch tech is awesome too, but you have to watch out for frame traps - sometimes i hear a cr.lk start to come out from me and then i got thrown, or as said above they can hit you with something like scissor kicks/srks.
b.lk, b.mk xx ex yoga fire, standing short is a nice blockstring that pushes people miles away but is a bit risky against characters with a good reversal.